Japan’s premier tonkotsu ramen chain gives us some wonderful goodies to celebrate the New Year. 

It’s that time of year again, when companies around Japan start selling fukubukuro, lucky bags filled with random goods sold at a discount, to help celebrate the New Year holiday season.

One of the fukubukuro we always look forward to is the one from Japanese tonkotsu noodle chain Ichiran, which is released in three tiers, using the shochikubai traditional Japanese ranking system of plum, bamboo and pine, with price tags to match — the Plum option retails for 10,000 yen (US$67.90), while the Bamboo is priced at 15,000 yen and the Pine at 20,000 yen.

We opted for the “Ichiran Lucky Bag ~Plum~”, which, like the other lucky bags, became available in a special online pre-sale to members until 5 December.

It only took a day to arrive on our doorstep, and when we unboxed it, the contents were even better than we thought they would be.

The Ichiran Lucky Bag ~Plum~ contains all the below items for 10,000 yen, plus shipping.

・ Ichiran Sakazuki × 1
・ Ichiran Yaki Ramen Tonkotsu (2 servings) x 2
・ Ichiran Ramen Hakata Thin Straight Noodles (5 servings) x 2
・ Ichiran Ramen Hakata Thin Straight Noodles (2 servings) x 1
・ Ichiran Ramen Curly Noodles (5 servings) x 1
・ Ichiran Ramen Kamadare Tonkotsu (5 servings) x 1
・ Hakata Thin Noodles for Extra Servings (noodles only) x 10
・ Red Secret Powder (14 grams) x 1

▼ Ichiran Ramen Kamadare Tonkotsu, a special type of ramen only available at a limited number of Ichiran locations.

▼ Ichiran Ramen Hakata Style Thin Straight Noodles (2 servings)

▼ Ichiran Ramen Hakata Thin Straight Noodles (5 servings)

▼ Ichiran Ramen Curly Noodles (5 servings) x 1

▼ Ichiran Yaki Ramen Tonkotsu, a new yakisoba take on the chain’s famous noodles which was released earlier this year.

With 36 servings of ramen in the box, this was already a bargain for 10,000 yen, especially when just one five-serving pack of Thin Straight Noodles costs 2,157 yen when you purchase it from the official website.

However, the real pièce de résistance revealed itself in a teeny tiny box, designed to look like the box used for packaging large noodle bowls, which are also sold at the chain’s online store.

▼ This was no regular bowl, though. This was a “sakazuki“, which is a sake cup.

▼ Ichiran cleverly designed this sake cup to look like one of their noodle bowls, on a miniature scale.

We’d previously received a noodle bowl from the chain in last year’s Ichiran lucky bag, so we decided to line the two up for a comparison.

The miniature reproduction was truly amazing, replicating all the design details both inside the bowl and on the underside.

Measuring around seven centimetres (2.8 inches) across, the tiny bowl was obviously meant to be used as a sake cup, but we had other ideas in mind for it, given that it’s strong enough to handle hot liquid.

▼ Yes, as you might’ve guessed, we couldn’t resist making a tiny bowl of ramen.

▼ How adorable is this?

It might look like a plastic replica in the photo, but rest assured, this was a genuine bowl of ramen.

▼ Perfect for creating a meal for you and one for your favourite figurine or oshi.

General sales of the Ichiran lucky bags for 2024 went on sale at 11 a.m. (JST) on 5 December, so if you’re interested in starting the year with tonkotsu ramen of all different sizes, be sure to check them out online while you can.

And don’t forget you can always recreate the chain’s iconic solo booth dining setup in your very own kitchen!

Reference link: Ichiran Fukubukuro
Photos © SoraNews24
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